The present invention relates to fluid management systems and devices for resecting and removing tissue from the interior of a patient's body, for example in a transurethral resection of prostate tissue to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia.
Many electrosurgical and other minimally invasive procedures are performed though endoscopes which introduce an electrosurgical tool to target tissue via a body lumen or cavity. For example, prostate tissue resection may be performed using an electrosurgical resection tool which is placed using an endoscope located via the urethra. In such instances, it is often necessary to introduce saline or another fluid both to the body lumen in to create a working space and provide visibility and to the working end of the resection tool to enhance resection and/or collect debris.
Heretofore, fluids have often been introduced using a saline drip to the body lumen and/or the tissue resection area. The use of saline drips is simple but often lacks a degree of control and accountability that would be desirable. Active pumping systems have also been proposed, but such systems are frequently complicated and bulky, and often two separate pumping systems are needed to deliver separate fluid flows to the body lumen/cavity and to the tissue resection area.
For these reasons, it would be desirable to provide improved and alternative fluid management systems and methods which can be compact, easy to operate, and which minimize the need for redundant hardware. It would further desirable if such systems and methods allowed a simplified ability to keep track of fluid accumulation in the patient. At least some of these objectives will be met by the inventions described and claimed below.